Note to Dems – it’s time to compromise

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House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, left, the House Speaker-designate, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speak to the media after meeting with President Donald Trump, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019, on border security at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Remember way, way back in the old days — I’m talking December — when the Boston Globe-Democrat and New York Times were full of praise for President George H. W. Bush and his record of bipartisan compromise? When pundits on CNN and MSNBC were bemoaning the fact that more politicians weren’t willing to follow #Bush41’s example, set aside the politics and make a deal across the aisle?

“At Farewell to Bush, a Yearning for Decency, Moderation and Compromise,” was the headline in the Washington Post. “We had our differences of opinion … but we were able to work together in respectful ways,” Nancy Pelosi said of Bush.

All of Washington wondered: When did ‘compromise’ become a dirty word?

This week, apparently. Because the same Democrats decrying the divisiveness of a Washington without compromise greeted President Trump’s request for an additional $4 billion with “Not one penny!”

No counter-offer, no pot-sweetening, no nothing. In a $4.4 trillion budget, one that spends $7 million every minute, Democrats won’t cut a deal with Trump over 10 hours worth of cash?

Democrats today are taking precisely the same position that Ted Cruz and the tea partiers took over Obamacare during the government shutdown in 2013. And if I recall correctly, they were the bad guys.

At the time we were told that the issue wasn’t whether Obamacare was a good idea (it wasn’t), but rather that the unwillingness to compromise — despite the lousy poll numbers for the ACA at the time — was in and of itself a bad thing.

And that’s different from Charles Schumer and Pelosi’s “No, no, no!” position … how?

Oh, wait — I know. They’re Schumer and Pelosi. AKA “Democrats.” And Trump is evil incarnate. Much like Democrats said George H. W. Bush was during the 1992 campaign, when they were attacking him as a racist, warmongering stooge of Big Oil.

And yet, Bush did compromise. His compromise was a massive tax hike that took hundreds of billions of dollars out of the private economy and put it into the federal government’s pocket over the subsequent decade.

President Obama, on the other hand, did not. A Democratic supermajority shoved Obamacare down the voters’ throats and it will cost (according to the latest numbers) $1.34 trillion over a decade.

Which one was undermining the fabric of our democracy?

The argument that Democrats are making now — “We can’t waste money like that!” is the biggest spit take in American politics. Since when did Democrats worry about wasting money? The Obama “Bridge to Nowhere” stimulus bucks? The pallets of cash we airlifted to Iran?

Or how about Head Start? We have mountains of research proving this preschool program doesn’t work, but we’ll still waste $10 billion on it this year.

Liberals can’t have it both ways. They can’t harp on about how our fundamental democratic institutions are weakening, and our trust on governance is failing because our leaders won’t work together, while simultaneously telling Trump (and his 60 million voters) to pound sand over his core campaign issue.

If our democracy is truly in danger, then Democrats should cut the deal. Schumer and Pelosi should say, “Look, we don’t like the Wall. We think it’s dumb. But Trump won the election and democracy means letting winners do dumb things their voters like. So go play ‘Bob the Builder’ while we solve real problems.”

That’s what #Bush41 would have done. That’s what Tip O’Neill would have done. Will Nancy Pelosi?

Hell, no. Because she thinks she’s got Trump over a barrel and, like all the other “bipartisan compromisers,” she’d rather defeat Trump than defend the fabric of our democracy.

Michael Graham is a regular contributor to the Boston Herald. Follow him @IAmMGraham on Twitter.